TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Fuchs, Michael A1 - Jaeggi, Thomas A1 - Napier, Mark A1 - Pearson, Roland A1 - Pellegrini, Giulia A1 - Villegas Sanchez, Carolina T1 - Financing small and medium enterprises in the Republic of South Africa N2 - Numerous studies worldwide have highlighted the important contribution made by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to employment, income and economic growth. In a study of 76 developed and developing economies, Ayyagari and others (2007) found that SMEs account for more than 60 percent of total manufacturing employment and that SMEs contributed significant proportions of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). SME growth requires external financing, but constraints to accessing credit, consistently rated as some of the greatest barriers to the operation and growth of firms, affect SMEs more severely than large firms (Beck and Demirguc-Kunt 2006; Beck and others 2006). The purposes of this report are to: a) analyze the availability of bank finance to SMEs in South Africa and how availability might be enhanced in the context of the economic downturn; and b) offer concrete policy recommendations on how to lessen obstacles to bank SME financing and reduce the negative effects of the economic downturn (or of a similar downturn in future) on access to finance. The report is structured in 5 sections: section two provides a short overview of existing studies and data on SME finance in South Africa. Section three presents the main results of the surveys. Section four provides policy considerations. Section five concludes. Y1 - 2011 UR - https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/12687 PB - World Bank ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Keller, Wolfgang A1 - Rauch, Ferdinand T1 - Innovation When The Market Is Shrinking: Firm-level Responses To Competition From China N2 - How does trade liberalization that raises a country’s import competition affect the innovative activity of its firms? We exploit the strong growth of Chinese exports resulting from China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 as a competitive shock to, specifically, Mexican manufacturing firms. Innovation is captured through information on the adoption of specific production techniques such as just in time inventory methods, quality control, and job rotation. Our results indicate that China’s rise in global trade did not affect by much Mexico’s rate of innovation, which contrasts with the substantial gains that others have found in the case of bilateral liberalization. At the same time, there is a striking heterogeneity in the responses across firms: productive firms innovate more while less productive firms innovate less. This leads to positive selection in that initial differences in firm performance are sharpened by the advent of new competition. We discuss the implications of these findings for theories of trade and innovation. Y1 - 2010 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Crespi, Gustavo A T1 - Catching up with the technological frontier: Micro-level evidence on growth and convergence JF - Industrial and Corporate Change N2 - In this article, we study how firm heterogeneity influences productivity catching up using plant-level data from Mexico. The article addresses three issues: first, it evaluates the process of convergence towards the global versus the local technological frontier in a middle-income country such as Mexico. Second, it systematically evaluates the role of technological efforts in determining the speed of convergence towards each of these technological frontiers. Third, it assesses the role of openness and trade integration in determining the speed of convergence and presents a horse race between integration and technological effort in explaining the determinants of heterogeneity in influencing the process of convergence toward both the domestic and the global technological frontier. Our results suggest that building firm-level technological capabilities is important for catching up with the global frontier. A policy focused on trade alone will facilitate convergence towards the best technological practices available locally, but it will fall short of encouraging convergence with the global frontier. Y1 - 2010 UR - https://academic.oup.com/icc/article/19/6/2073/731503 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtq057 VL - 10 IS - 6 SP - 2073 EP - 2096 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Maloney, William F. A1 - Tsivanidis, Nick T1 - Family Firms and Contractual Institutions N2 - This paper offers new evidence on the relationship between contractual institutions, family management, and aggregate performance. The study creates a new firm-level database on management and ownership structures spanning 134 regions in 11 European countries. To guide the empirical analysis, it develops a model of industry equilibrium in which heterogeneous firms decide between family and professional management when the latter are subject to contracting frictions. The paper tests the model's predictions using regional variation in trust within countries. Consistent with the model, the finding show that there is sorting of firms across management modes, in which smaller firms and those in regions with worse contracting environments are more likely to be family managed. These firms are on average 25 percent less productive than professionally managed firms, and moving from the country with the least reliable contracting environment to the most increases total factor productivity by 21.6 percent. Family management rather than ownership drives these results. Y1 - 2019 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/139191554304091289/Family-Firms-and-Contractual-Institutions ET - no. WPS 8803 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Maloney, William F. A1 - McKenzie, David John T1 - Improving Management with Individual and Group-Based Consulting: Results from a Randomized Experiment in Colombia N2 - Differences in management quality are an important contributor to productivity differences across countries. A key question is then how to best improve poor management in developing countries. We test two different approaches to improving management in Colombian auto parts firms. The first uses intensive and expensive one-on-one consulting, while the second draws on agricultural extension approaches to provide consulting to small groups of firms at approximately one-third of the cost of the individual approach. Both approaches lead to improvements in management practices of a similar magnitude (8-10 percentage points), so that the new group-based approach dominates on a cost-benefit basis. Moreover, authors find some evidence that the group-based intervention led to increases in firm size over the next 1.5 years, including a statistically significant increase in employment, while the impacts on firm outcomes are smaller and statistically insignificant for the individual consulting. The results point to the potential of group-based approaches as a pathway to scaling up management improvements. Y1 - 2018 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/121371546237097316/Improving-Management-with-Individual-and-Group-Based-Consulting-Results-from-a-Randomized-Experiment-in-Colombia ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - McKenzie, David T1 - Shortening Supply Chains : Experimental Evidence from Fruit and Vegetable Vendors in Bogota T2 - World Bank Group: Policy Research Working Paper 8977 Y1 - 2019 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/728681565630010702/pdf/Shortening-Supply-Chains-Experimental-Evidence-from-Fruit-and-Vegetable-Vendors-in-Bogota.pdf ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Maloney, William A1 - McKenzie, David T1 - Improving Management in Colombian Firms Through Individual and Group Consulting T2 - Finance & PSD Impact Y1 - 2019 UR - https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/31843/Improving-Management-in-Colombian-Firms-Through-Individual-and-Group-Consulting.pdf?sequence=1 VL - 53 IS - June 2019 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Grover, Arti A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Chakraborty, Pavel T1 - Management Practices in Croatia : Drivers and Consequences for Firm Performance T2 - World Bank Group: Policy Research Working Paper 9067 Y1 - 2019 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/521611574453619743/pdf/Management-Practices-in-Croatia-Drivers-and-Consequences-for-Firm-Performance.pdf ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Maloney, William A1 - McKenzie, David T1 - Improving Management with Individual and Group-Based Consulting Results from a Randomized Experiment in Colombia T2 - World Bank Group: Policy Research Working Paper 8854 Y1 - 2019 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/166671557929384690/pdf/Improving-Management-with-Individual-and-Group-Based-Consulting-Results-from-a-Randomized-Experiment-in-Colombia.pdf ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Cali, Massimiliano A1 - Cantore, Nicola A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Pereira-López, Mariana A1 - Presidente, Giorgio T1 - Too Much Energy The Perverse Effect of Low Fuel Prices on Firms T2 - World Bank Group: Policy Research Working Paper 9039 Y1 - 2019 UR - http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/670351570710975641/pdf/Too-Much-Energy-The-Perverse-Effect-of-Low-Fuel-Prices-on-Firms.pdf ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Aterido, Reyes A1 - Beck, Thorsten T1 - Gender and finance in Sub-Saharan Africa : are women disadvantaged ? T2 - World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Y1 - 2011 UR - http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2011/02/23/000158349_20110223113408/Rendered/PDF/WPS5571.pdf VL - 5571 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Molina, Ana Cristina A1 - Bussolo, Maurizio A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo T1 - The DR-CAFTA and the extensive margin : a firm-level analysis T2 - World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Y1 - 2010 UR - http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2010/08/27/000158349_20100827150309/Rendered/PDF/WPS5340.pdf VL - 5340 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Javorcik, Beata S. T1 - Multi-product exporters: diversification and micro-level dynamics T2 - World Bank policy Research Working Paper Y1 - 2008 UR - http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2008/09/24/000158349_20080924094003/Rendered/PDF/WPS4723.pdf VL - 4723 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Javorcik, Beata S. T1 - MULTI-PRODUCT EXPORTERS: PRODUCT CHURNING, UNCERTAINTY AND EXPORT DISCOVERIES JF - The Economic Journal N2 - Recent research on international trade focuses on firm‐product‐level heterogeneity and the role of uncertainty in shaping international trade. This article contributes to the literature by examining product‐level dynamics within firms in the context of Mexican trade integration under NAFTA. The data show intense product churning within firms and confirm the existence of within‐firm product heterogeneity. The data indicate that new exporters enter foreign markets with a small number of varieties, most of which were previously sold at home, and with a small export small volume. The data also suggest that export discoveries are relatively rare and are imitated within a short period of time. Y1 - 2010 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2010.02356.x VL - 120 IS - 544 SP - 481 EP - 499 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Dyker, David A. T1 - Introduction: Productivity And Social Capability — A Historical And Analytical Framework T2 - Closing the EU East-West Productivity Gap Foreign Direct Investment, Competitiveness and Public Policy Y1 - 2006 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1142/9781860948015_0001 SP - 1 EP - 17 PB - World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Dyker, David A. A1 - Stolberg, Cordula T1 - Identifying the channels and mechanics of FDI-induced technology transfer T2 - Closing the EU East-West Productivity Gap Foreign Direct Investment, Competitiveness and Public Policy Y1 - 2006 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1142/9781860948015_0002 SP - 19 EP - 33 PB - World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Kofoed, Neils T1 - Checking The Results Of The Case Study Interviews— An Essay In Triangulation T2 - Closing the EU East-West Productivity Gap Foreign Direct Investment, Competitiveness and Public Policy Y1 - 2006 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1142/9781860948015_0005 SP - 93 EP - 133 PB - World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. ER -